Chapter 6
‘Yelena come on’ Natasha wines, gabbing a pin off her sister and sticking it in her hair
‘no’ Yelena huffs
‘please’ nat tries ‘and you know I hardly ever say that to you’
‘I know’ Yelena stick out her bottom lip grumpily ‘but no sestra, you cant make me do this, id break her’
‘you cant my daughter’ Natasha sighs, walking over to her wardrobe and grabbing a pair of shoes
‘why cant you just stay, you look after her’
‘no’ natasha says ‘Anya is your niece, you need to be able to look after her, I’m going on a date with my wife so you’ she pokes Yelena ‘are looking after our kid’
‘you have bony fingers’ Yelena groans
‘and you’ll have no fingers unless you do this for me’ Natasha grins, then spins her around and gives her a little shove in the lower back. Yelena stumbles into the sitting room, where anya is colouring-or rather drawing large squiggles proudly on a page
‘but’ Yelena tries to run off but Natasha glares her back into place
‘hello undersized human spawn’ Yelena clears her throat and crouches awkwardly down beside Anya
‘what does spawn mean?’ Anya tilts her head and looks up at her, her blonde hair curling on the ends and blue eyes piercing into Yelena’s
‘oh urm… it means like offspring?’ Lena tries and Anya nods slowly, going to draw again, before looking back up and asking
‘what does offspring mean?’
‘okay’ Natasha laughs at Yelena’s expressions ‘I’ll leave you to this fun conversation’ she hugs Yelena tightly
‘don’t scare my child for life’ she whispers in her ear and Yelena shrugs
‘I’ll do my best’ she pulls a face ‘enjoy your gross grown up date’
‘yeah yeah’ Natasha picks up her bag ‘I will’
‘allright, stay safe’ Yelena tried and Natasha laughs, spinning around
‘I love you Yelena’ she says and Lena stares for a moment
‘I … love you too’ she says back, the words feeling weird but oddly comforting
And then they’re alone. Anya looks up at Yelena with big eyes and the blonde stick her tongue out at her
‘what you looking at tiny bean’ she asks and anya shrugs nonchalantly
‘nothin’
Yelena nods, then rocks backwards and forwards ono her heels, everything in her telling her to run, but Natasha’s words ringing in her head
‘so…. What you drawing?’ she asks, seeing Anya’s taken out another piece of paper and is scribbling happy on it
‘my family, school said we had to bring it in next week when we’re finished’ Anya smiles goofily and holds up the sheet.
Its boring is the first thing Yelena notes, then she looks at the pattern, its got five gingerbread like figures outlined in black and white to be coloured in, each labelled with a word-‘Brother, Sister, Me, Mommy, Daddy’ and then a blob with ears that could be either a dog or a cat
;who are you drawing?’ Yelena asks, confused how anya’s two mums are meant to fit in
‘this is uncle clint’ she points her crayon at the brother sections, who’s been coloured in in black and purple with spiky hair and a grin that quite literally reaches his ears
‘hes not my brother, but I cant spell uncle’ she says like its not a problem at all and moves on quickly
‘this is mama, shes got red hair and the black suit I see her with on TV sometimes, when mum lets be watch’
Anyas drawing of Natasha is simply a red squiggle but by this point Yelena is at on the floor, leaning over her shoulder and almost, almost smiling
‘and this one? She asks pointing at a navy coloured man outline labelled ‘daddy’
‘well that’s my other mama’ Anya says simply as if its obvious ‘mama wears dresses so she fit into the triangular one and mum wears trousers so I put her in here. The teacher didn’t have a two mummy sheet’ anya frowns a bit ‘but I drew her in anyway’
‘yeah, well done kid’ Yelena pats her awkwardly o the head, then points to the other blob, whos only just been started, blonde hairs the only feature
‘you’ve drawn yourself in the sister place kid’ Yelena points to the me figure ‘you need to draw you here’
‘oh no that’s you as my sister’ Anya says ‘that’s you Auntie Lena’
Yelena Belovas world has literally never been rocked, she isn’t shocked by anything, nothing makes her cry, but in that minute- when shed realized she was a blonde haired, grey-clothed squiggle labelled sister on her nieces school work she felt like crying. Instead she grinned and roughly hugs Anya, squeezing her tightly
‘oh urm… you want ice cream kid, I’ll help you finish this later, but ice cream right? All kids love ice cream’ she stands up and walk over to the freezer, Anya following loyally, drawn in by the promise of ice cream
An hour later Yelena is in deep regret of the huge bowl of ice cream and sprinkles she served her
‘let it goooooooooo’ Anya yells for the third time, prepared to reenact, line for line, act for act the entirety of Frozen. Yelena tightens the pillow around her head and shuts her eyes, preparing for death when theres a tap on the head
‘Auntie Lena, auntie Lena?’ Anya asks, tapping her over and over again ‘are you asleep’
‘I wish I was child’ Yelena grunts ‘you don’t yet?’
‘yep’ alya flops onto the sofa beside her ‘im sleepy’
‘you want to go to bed?’ Yelena asks in disbeilf and Anya shakes her head violently
‘nope, I want to cuddle’ she opens her arms and fixes Yelena with a puppy eyed look
‘my mamas always make me pillow forts’ she says sadly ‘when are they home?’
Yelena checks her phone ‘urm.. a few hours yet, but I suppose…. I could maybe perhaps… help you build a pillow… fort’
Anyas eyes widen comedically ‘yessss’ she screams, and for the second time today Yelena regrets her decision.
‘no you little shit’ Yelena screams, chucking a pillow hard at the top of Anyas head, only just peaking out over her pillow fort
‘mama says that a bad word’ she yells bad, throwing the pillow straight back (or rather, wonkily back, it travels about 4 feet and flops onto the floor.)
Yelena and Anya have each set up their own pillow forts opposite each other on the sitting room floor and seem to be intent on the sole reason of destroying the others, now you may think the adult, grown up, able to throw assassin would have the upper hand, but through a combination of practise, building the most structurally sound pillow fort (uncle Bruce taught her how to get it the most stable) and being tiny to hit Anya is easily holding her own
‘yeah well don’t listen to her’ Yelena says back, then pauses, gathering up the pillows that have missed her ‘wait which mum?’
‘Mama-Maria’ Anya replies and Lena snorts
‘do listen to her, don’t listen to Natasha okay?’
‘okay’ anya lobs a pillow that for once almost hits its destination and Yelena has to duck suddenly, accidently hitting the corner of her fort and almost taking the whole thing down with her
‘ha’ anya calls ‘you need to layer your pillows a particular way’
‘yeah right, ive been on this earth three times what you have, you cant tell me what to do’ Yelena shoots back and anya rolls her eyes
‘you sound like mama that time mum tried to tell her what to do. She told nat to bring gloves on a really cold walk and Natasha said she didn’t need to, she was Russian and she knew best and then she almost froze’ Anya grins happily as one of her pillow hits home and the front of yelenas fort falls away
‘ha’
‘okay okay you little shit’ Yelena puts her hand up in surrender pose ‘teach me’
‘yay’ anya claps her hands together and dramatically yacks out one of the lower pillows in her fort and the whole thing collapses
‘you what you need to do is…’ and then she launches into a full explanation of the complex method of punching, folding, stacking and over lapping that is required to create a steadfast pillow fort
Maria and Natasha stumble though the door at 11pm, giggling and out of breath, having just been chased by a group of men with cameras who had spotted the two out for dinner, by 10pm there had been a whole group of them snapping photos and the duo had had to begin a wild goose chase around the streets of new York, holding hands when they were alone and putting Natasha’s scarf over marias face when the click of shutters got a bit too close under a streetlight. Eventually the combination of darkness and walking too far in heels had to return them to the tower and they’d slipped in the back way, sneaking past the security with their level 11 passes and taking the lift straight up to their floor. But both women stop on the spot ta the sight in front of them.
Yelena is asleep on the sofa, laid down like a log on her side, mouth slightly open and hair static across her face, but Anya is asleep too, curled up against her, and Yelena’s arm is draped protectively over her niece. Their blonde hair mixes together with slight snores and a blanket is twisted around their feet.
‘oh my lord’ Natasha breathes and Maria just hums in response, wrapping her arms around her wife from behind
‘right decision so introduce them?’ she asks and Natasha nods
‘yes. always family first masha, always’
‘always’ maria grins, placing a hand gently on her stomach.